New Delhi: India has diversified its sources for the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from six countries earlier to a total of 15 countries in order to safeguard its energy supplies against supply chain disruptions due to the West Asia crisis, the Parliament was informed on Monday.
The country has also broadened its crude oil sourcing network, with imports now coming from 41 countries compared with 27 earlier, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Suresh Gopi said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.
“This diversification has reduced dependence on any particular country, region or transit route and enhanced India’s ability to manage supply disruptions and market volatility,” he said.
The minister said that the risks to energy supplies are regularly monitored and global market conditions assessed in coordination with public-sector oil and gas companies and other stakeholders.
The government said it takes measures as required to ensure the uninterrupted availability of crude oil, LNG, and petroleum products.
India imports over 85 per cent of its crude oil requirement, which makes it crucial for the country to ensure supply chain resilience and access to multiple sources of energy in order to reduce the risk of sudden disruptions during a period of geopolitical uncertainty in which the global energy market has turned highly volatile.
Alongside diversifying supply sources, the government is also expanding its strategic petroleum storage capacity to strengthen the country’s ability to deal with supply shocks.
Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Ltd (ISPRL) has established three strategic petroleum reserve facilities with a combined capacity of 5.33 million metric tonnes (MMT) at coastal sites in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. These reserves also come in handy when crude prices suddenly shoot up in the global markets. The stored crude can be used by the public sector oil refineries to tide over such periods of extreme volatility.
The government has also approved two additional commercial-cum-strategic petroleum reserve facilities with a combined capacity of 6.5 MMT in Odisha and Karnataka. The projects at Chandikhol in Odisha and Padur in Karnataka were approved in July 2021.
(IANS)
